A Walk in the Park
by C.W. Smith
Summary: Parting after war is one thing, but running into your old comrade is aother. Especially when two ghosts of your past won't stop bugging you.


A Walk in the Park

A Walk in the Park

Chapter 1: Springtime for Shinji in Germany

An Evangelion Fiction

By: Lord Legato Deathscythe

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Blah blah blah… don't own eva. Blah Blah Blah, will remove at owners request.

It was a trip that had been a long time coming. The young man had come to Berlin with one purpose in mind, and had everything set up to proceed with that purpose. It was nothing spectacular; millions of people did the same thing every year. For Shinji Ikari however this was an important trip.

He had come to take his first REAL vacation. In all the years he had been alive Shinji Ikari had never left Japan on anything other than business. First it had been things related to Eva and NERV, and then it had been secret inquiries concerning the attempt at Third Impact. Fortunately, the inquires and subsequent information released about the Angel War had been kept confidential or sanitized to protect the Children from undo scrutiny. All the world knew about the people who had saved humanity had been their designations. No one in the customs line knew that the Third Child was standing amongst them.

Shinji liked it that way. The way his classmates during his school years had flocked on him because of his status never appealed to Shinji. He preferred the quiet anonymity that the UN had so graciously afforded him.

From then on he did what he could just to live life as anyone else. He had a good job, went out some nights with his small circle of friends, and even had dated a few women. Anyone who had known him would say he grew up to a life that was rather dull, and Shinji wouldn't have it any other way. Normality, while dull to most, was a godsend to the young man.

So as his passport was stamped and he made his way to the baggage claim, Shinji just took the chance to watch the people around him. After all this time, just watching humanity carry during a normal day filled his heart with contentment. He would at this point in life die knowing that his suffering in youth had been worth it, and that he had found a sense of peace he had never felt worthy of back then.

Shinji walked out to the pickup area, and hailed a cab that would take him to the hotel he had made his reservation at. When he had told his friends of this trip, they all thought they knew why he was going to Berlin. It made sense, as Shinji had never really settled down with any of his previous girlfriends. Kensuke himself had made it bluntly clear what they all thought.

_"YOU'RE GOING TO HUNT DOWN THE DEMON?!"_

Shinji had to wait until his laughter died out for almost five minutes before setting Kensuke straight. He wasn't going to Germany to find Asuka again and try to hook up. The reason he had chosen that city to go see was because of how much the young German woman had talked about it. Because of all of that, he felt compelled to see if it was everything the redhead had made it out to be. Of course he expected to be slightly disappointed, as Asuka had a tendency to build things up to more then they actually were, including herself.

That however would have to wait for the next day as Shinji checked in and went up to his hotel room. The flight itself was tiring, and Shinji was still on Japan Time. He ordered a light meal from room service and then settled down for the night. He was eager to see what the next day would present him in this city.

--

After a light breakfast and a quick shower, Shinji was ready to go forth and see the city. There were some places to go and look around the city, the usual spots of historical interest. He went to the memorial park around the remains of the Berlin Wall, monuments to the victims of the Holocaust, and all sorts of pain that humanity had inflicted upon itself. It hit him though as he looked at the lone monolith of mortar, cement, and iron that was the final piece of the wall left standing.

Rei had said that man fears the darkness, so he scratches away at it with fire. Shinji knew looking upon those reminders of some of history's darkest hours that man also feared each other, so he built walls around him to keep everyone else out. He had always felt he was the one walling himself up, and that it was unnatural. Now he knew just how natural it really was. Self-destructive as it may be, humanity had a habit of committing itself to actions that were detrimental to the species.

Shinji decided he had had enough of historical studies, and proceeded through one of the parks in the city center. Few clouds went through the skies, and the sun shone brightly as many children played. He purchased a drink from one of the many vendors along the walkways and sat down to watch the people of the city relax and enjoy the day. Shinji especially enjoyed watching the children with their parents. It made everything that had happened during the war worth it.

Finishing his drink and tossing the remaining can in the nearby trash, Shinji went walking along one of the many trails, enjoying his time under the trees. The soft sunlight that filtered down through the leaves gave everything a feel of calm. The soft crying of a young girl under the trees disturbed the feeling of calm. Shinji had never been able to walk away from crying children, he knew how it felt all too well.

He found her curled up under one of the larger trees, her face buried in her arms as she hugged her knees. From the little Shinji could make out, he figured she was only four or five years old. The young girls red hair reminded him of Asuka, but that thought was short lived as he crouched down in front of her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shinji asked, his voice low and soft as he bent down onto a knee.

"I got lost," said the girl, her voice muffled by her arms.

"It's okay now, I found you so you're not lost anymore," Shinji said trying to calm her down a bit. He slowly moved and sat down next to the small girl. As he did he took a look around the trail trying to spot the young girls parents. But they were the only ones around.

Seeing this poor little girl sitting here crying her eyes out and no one around trying to help her angered Shinji. It hit much too close to home for him. _"Déjà vu, feels like forever since that day at the station,"_ Shinji thought to himself. He kept his anger towards who ever this girl's parents were down as he tried to get her to open up. He did not want to frighten the small child.

"What's your name?" Shinji asked.

"Anna," the young girl sobbed out.

Shinji softly run his hand over the young girls hair. She cried into her knees for a while longer before looking up. She looked at him as she tried to wipe her tears away. Shinji handed her a tissue from his pocket, and sat with her as she wiped her brown eyes. He smiled as she looked at him, simply sitting there as she got herself together.

"Do you know where your parents are Anna?" Shinji asked. Anna replied with only a shake of her head. "Well, how about I take you to where all the other kids are playing, and we look for your parents there, how does that sound?" Shinji asked.

"Momma says never go any where with strangers."

"You're momma is a smart lady. How about this, I'll get you out of here, and we'll find a police officer. You can't just sit here and wait."

The girl sniffled and wiped her nose, "Okay."

Shinji stood up and offered her his hand. Little did either know that the eyes of two certain ghosts were watching them.

--

As Shinji and Anna exited the forested part of the park, they came upon a rather hectic sight. The entire park was filled with law enforcement and volunteers about to set out looking for the young girl. Shinji just shook his head, a little amused at the irony of the situation. Here he was, a foreigner to this country, and he had found a lost girl in the park before even the local authorities had organized a search.

"Mama's gonna be mad," Anna said.

"Were you with Mama today?"

"No, with my school friends."

Shinji smiled, "Then I'm certain she's more angry at the school for loosing you then you for getting lost."

"I know, but Mama gets loud when she's mad."

Shinji smiled and began leading her to where he thought the command post was, "I used to know a girl like that. You could tell how angry she was by how loud she got. The more angry she got, the louder she got. I think a few folk actually had to have their ears checked after a few cases of that."

From where they exited the forest they could hear someone yelling in the air. In fact the pitch and volume filled Shinji with familiarity. He knew who was yelling, and then all the sudden he remembered what he thought when he first saw Anna.

He looked down and the small child and asked, "Is that momma?"

She nodded. Shinji then asked with a little trepidation in his voice, "Anna, what's your last name?"

"Soryu."

--

"Ma'am, we are doing everything we can to locate your daughter. I just need you to be patient," the officer said. Clearly, he didn't know who this was before him.

"PATIENT?! My daughter is lost in this park, possibly picked up by some pervert who gets his kicks off with children before slitting their throats and you want me to be PATIENT? I'm going to go right into that park and find her myself!" the irate mother yelled.

The older woman standing behind her tried to calm her down, "Come on, Asuka. Let them do their jobs."

"Back off, Elsa. I don't plan on standing by while my baby is in danger," The red head screamed.

"It's good to see that some things never change," a strange voice said behind her. She turned about to unload on the poor soul when a small blur of red hair ran into her arms. Anna hugged her mother as tight as she could while Asuka did the same. Asuka picked her daughter up and held her while comforting her.

She then took a moment to see who had spoken before, ready to thank them when she finally recognized him. The years had changed him only slightly, perhaps giving his features some similarity to his father. But the eyes were all she needed to see.

"Shinji?"

He smiled, it was the same smile she remembered. A peaceful smile that was always too short lived. She didn't intend to drive that away just yet.

"Hello Asuka, it's been a while."

Asuka smiled, "Yes, much too long a while."

The officer looked at the foreign man before him and began asking him questions. Shinji readily answered him. Asuka was impressed that he seemed to be if not fluent then conversant in German now. Asuka smiled and asked her daughter, "How did you find him?"

"He found me Momma. He said he'd take me back to you," Anna said. If only her young daughter knew how far the young man would have gone if he had to.

Elsa recognized Shinji as well, but her expression was not one of fond remembrance. She had hoped the name Ikari would never be spoken again. Elsa didn't care if the boy was different from the man she knew. She would do what she could to keep him from being more then a distant memory.

"Asuka, we should go. Let the police handle him," Elsa said.

Asuka gave her a sidelong glance, "Don't worry, he didn't do anything. I know him too well for that. Besides, I want to catch up on what is going on back in Japan."

Elsa was not pleased, "We should put as much distance as we can between us and that man as fast as possible."

Asuka didn't budge. She knew exactly what Elsa was thinking, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Asuka however would have none of it. If it weren't for Anna and her needs she would have left to go back a long time ago.

"If you have a problem with the late Commander Ikari that's your business. But don't think that just because my father married you that that gives you the right to give me any advice on who I should stay away from," Asuka growled.

Anna didn't know what her mother and grandmother were talking about. She had fallen asleep in Asuka's arms. Asuka stroked her hair as she slept, exhausted from being lost and found. She looked up as the officer finished with Shinji and let him go.

He hadn't intended on finding her. There was no way he could have known where she was, or even that her daughter would be in the park at the same time he was. And even if he had found the girl anyways, the odds of her being Asuka's were astronomical. Had any one of these events happened by themselves he would have written it off to chance. But together he couldn't write them off as easily.

He had a feeling but kept it to himself, "She's a beautiful little girl. She looks a lot like you Asuka."

"She does, but she's not as... precocious as I was" Asuka said. Shinji nodded and glanced at the woman giving him a rather stern look behind Asuka. Shinji understood that look all too well. A lot of people had given him that look shortly after the final battle at the Geofront and the aborted Third Impact. It was a look of hate he was all too familiar with.

Shinji always tried to at least be polite with those people. "Who's your friend?" he asked.

Asuka threw Elsa a glare, "That is Elsa Soryu, my Step-mother." Asuka made a clear effort to stress the step part. It was already clear to Shinji the two didn't see eye to eye.

The glower of the woman made it clear to see why. Asuka had never told him the whole story behind the woman, or the story behind her mother's death. Shinji never asked, preferring to let her tell him if she felt the need. But as she never had he could only assume that most of the elder womans animosity towards him came from the name. It wasn't the first time someone he met already had their views on the name of Ikari.

He had learned to ignore it, "A pleasure to meet you," he said, offering his hand.

The courtesy was not returned.

"She's just going to glare at me and try to blast me with her eyes like the Fourteenth did, isn't she?" Shinji asked Asuka.

"Pretty much," Asuka said with a laugh just hinting in her voice. She had a look in her eye that Shinji hadn't quiet expected from her if they ever met again. He had expected her to be confrontational and abusive to him. Not that he would have blamed her with what had happened in the final days of the war.

"So where are you staying?" Asuka asked, pulling Shinji out of his thoughts. He told her the hotel and she nodded.

"You have to come over so we can catch up," Asuka said. Elsa began coughing at that. Asuka ignored her.

Shinji just smiled, "I'd like that."

They parted ways at that and Shinji walked back to the hotel. The encounter had been unexpected, and unexpectedly pleasant. But it made sense in a way, they hadn't seen each other in a long time. He had beaten back most of his demons in the intervening years, it made sense she would have as well. He decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the hotel restaurant before heading to his room.

--

Elsa seethed as Asuka came back from laying Anna down. Asuka didn't acknowledge her at first as she pulled out a drink from the fridge. Elsa was not going to be ignored so easily.

"You are not going to bring him here," Elsa said, the venom in her voice apparent.

Asuka's voice was just as chilled, "I will bring who I want into my house."

Elsa would not be silenced, "He is that bastard's son. His parents were the ones who envisioned everything and held the responsibility for it. How can you even think of associating with him let alone let him near this house? Near your daughter?"

"Because in all the time I knew him he was never anything but the kindest person I ever knew. If I hadn't been as immature as I was back then I would have recognized it, and perhaps we wouldn't have been as bad off as we were," Asuka said.

Elsa grabbed Asuka's right arm and pulled the sleeve of her blouse back. Her right arm was covered in scars, including the long length of dead flesh that traveled from her wrist to her shoulder. Asuka pulled her arm back angrily.

"He's responsible for that," Elsa said.

"Why are you trying to make me hate him?" Asuka asked, covering the scar she never quiet could handle looking at.

"Because I know exactly what the Ikari's are capable of. It's in his blood. That monster was the key to Third Impact from the beginning. We were one step away from being wiped out because of his and his fathers actions."

Asuka walked away, not wanting to bring up old wounds that had been hard fought in healing. She had never quite liked the woman but her father had tried to make amends after the invasion of NERV while Asuka recovered. She had mostly been able to let the past be in regards to her father.

Elsa wasn't as willing to just let Asuka be however. The investigations into what had brought about the actions of NERV hadn't left her Father unscathed, and he was one of several imprisoned for several years because of it. It was her father who had asked Asuka to look out for his wife. He knew she may never have it in her to like the woman, but he hoped.

There were times like now however that Asuka doubted she could ever like the woman, "Shinji had nothing to do with what Commander Ikari planned. He was just as much a victim as any of us. Gendo Ikari paid for that with his life, and I will not hold Shinji responsible for the sins of his father."

Asuka left the room, making it clear that the discussion was over.

--

Shinji walked back to his hotel room after a nice meal. He still felt light and happy, more so then he had in a while. He had thought about it over dinner and came to realize that even though he had moved past most of the nightmares of the war, something had always been missing from his life. Perhaps that's why all his relationships had failed. The scars on his hands were more then enough testament to what had happened, and the women he dated never quiet knew what to make of his cover story for how he had gotten them.

Perhaps it was the fact that he had to use a cover story that kept him from finding the right woman. No matter how well they got along there were just things he couldn't share with them. A part of him forever closed off to almost every human on the planet. Only his own personal inner circle knew. Perhaps this was how his father had fallen so far in his pursuit of his goal. Only able to trust two other people with most of what he had planned, and even then only enough for them to help him.

These thoughts ran through his mind as he opened his door and walked inside. The scene before him was one of total contrast to how his day had been. The room was soaked in blood. He looked to his left and saw Rei's corrupted and violated body as it had been when the sixteenth had killed her second incarnation. Her dead red eyes glared at him accusingly as her flesh pulsed with veins from the Sixteeth's intrusion. On the bed were the mangled remains of Kawrou, his head perched gamely on the nightstand. Both of the phantoms gave him accusatory stares.

"Why did you let me die Ikari? Why?" the ghost of Rei asked.

"I told you I loved you and you murdered me. Why Shinji?" came from Kawrou's head.

Shinji looked on this nightmare from his past. Two people he had cared for, damning him for what he did...

And promptly yawned.

"Kawrou, move your corpse over," he said.

The crushed form began to get up and off the bed, reaching for it's head as it did but tipping it over on the floor. The head rolled a few feet as the body tried to grab it. Kawrou's body got up and chased after its head, its clumsy stumble kicking it further away. Shinji sat down on the bed and began removing his shoes as Rei picked up Kawrou's head and started playing keep away with his body.

"Guys, that was scary the first five times you did it. Now it's just getting old," Shinji said as Rei passed him the head.

"But it's fun to play the walking corpse," Kawrou's head pouted. The head quickly got passed back to Rei.

As Rei kept trying to keep Kawrou's head from the rest of him she asked, "So how was your walk?"

Shinji sighed, remembering what he had been thinking, "I ran into Asuka."

Rei dropped Kawrou's head, his body finally picking it up and putting it back on. Rei's appearance changed, going from the brutalized body to the form of a young woman in the prime of her life. She sat next to Shinji and placed her hand on his knee. "How?"

"She has a daughter now. I was in the park and found her lost in the forested area. Brought her out and there waiting and yelling at the police searching the area was Asuka. I didn't expect to see her at all or find her when I came."

Rei nodded, "Do you believe in fate?" she asked.

Shinji smirked, "I thought I had already taken care of that part of my life."

Rei smiled lightly, "No, that was destiny. There is a slight difference."

Kaworu stood against the wall now, his neck showing no indications of a scar, "Destiny can't be changed really. Hell, you tried and things happened to pull you back to it. Fate however is more malleable, more flexible. Your choices and desires can change your fate easily."

"All nice to know guys, but what does that have to do with Asuka in the park?" Shinji asked as he got up and pulled a can of juice from the mini-bar. He unbuttoned his shirt and looked in the mirror.

"You chose to come visit this place because of what Asuka told you about it. And while you were seeing this place as she had described it you found her. What did you do when you did?"

"We talked briefly. She invited me over to her place to catch up..." he didn't get to go any further as Rei squealed in joy. It was the second most frightening thing he had ever witnessed.

"THAT'S JUST SO SWEET! You two meet, share some coffee and then, 'Oh Shinji, I don't know. Oh yes that feels nice.'" Rei said, and began hugging herself with her eyes closed. Shinji and Kaworu just stared at her both not really wanting to know what was going through the blue haired specters head.

"Yea... You did hear the part about her having a kid? She's probably married so I doubt that anything like that will happen," Shinji said.

"Shinji's right. Besides, it's good to get to know old friends," Kawrou said almost dismissively.

Rei looked slightly disappointed and pouted, "But you two would be so cute together."

Shinji shook his head and finished off his drink, "Rei, I know you want something to happen in my love life, but there is only so much that can happen. Besides, I came here to relax and take in the sights, not go chasing unrequited love."

Shinji dropped on the bed, his hands folded behind his head, "Don't worry, even if I never find someone at least I know I have my two ghosts to talk too."

Rei frowned, "How many times do I have to tell you we aren't ghosts?"

"Until you are able to be seen by anyone besides me you are either ghosts or I'm insane. Take your pick," Shinji said as he closed his eyes for a short nap.

To Be Continued...

Authors Notes: Figured I'd try a Romantic comedy. This originally was going to be a one shot but after a while, I figured I might be able to drag it out more going chapters. Sides, it has the potential to be much longer then a one shot should.

Preread by Dartz, Fresh C, Himonnkey

Next Chapter: Shinji and Asuka never really expected to see each other again, but the chance encounter has given them a shot to catch up. While the name Ikari may not be much liked by all the members of the Soryu home the two that count seem to like the new guy. And just who are Lily and Tabby and why do they seem to like Tea time with Anna?

Next Chapter: Tea With Old Friends and Dead Angels.


End file.
